Bringing Courage and Creativity to the Classroom

Our Philosophy

We believe in the
possibilities of good teaching – and how teachers hold the future of
each child in their hands every day. Teachers have their own interests,
their own creative sparks, their own passions – by being purposeful and
plan-ful in their approach to discipline and teaching, they can preserve
the time and energy required for them to allow their own creativity,
personality and voice to shine through.

Though
the art of teaching is thousands of years old, and the expectations and
environment in which we teach changes daily, the heart of a good
teacher stays the same. Our goal is to walk with you through the
ever-changing expectations and requirements our schools and teachers
must face, while ensuring that the essential human elements of the
teacher-student relationship are maintained and fostered.

Your Goals: Our Focus

Here
are some common questions we hear from our teachers & administrators as we
help them make progress towards their goals:

Common Core and Creative Teaching: Common Core curriculum has added additional content into an already full schedule and our teachers just don’t have the same amount of time to interact with the students – how do we foster a deeper relationship and make room for creativity in less time?

Classroom Management Basics: Most of our teachers became teachers because they love children and helping them learn, yet our universities do not offer courses in behavior management – how do we provide all teachers, especially those without years of real-world experience, with support on how to manage their classrooms, establish rapport and build a healthy academic and social learning community?

Ready for Riley: Kids are kids – and each year seems to bring more disciplinary challenges – how do we get ahead of challenging behaviors so that our teachers do not get consumed by having to manage a handful of challenging children every day?

Climate Teams: Most states now have standards for establishing and sustaining healthy school climates. At its worst – these requirements become mere checklists that get filled-out by a small group of people fueled by coffee and bagels one day a year – how do you use mandated climate requirements as springboards for growth?

Lunch &
Recess Learning Environments: Our lunch room and recess times are hectic;
we hire in aides to help, but it feels like it is out of control – how do we
make lunch and recess part of the learning environment?Targeted
Teacher Support: Principals are
pulled in multiple directions, and often need an extra set of arms and legs
with a handful of teachers, either to respond to issues or pilot a new way of managing
behavior – who can help evaluate, plan, and provide coaching for these teachers
in need?Whole School Community: There is often a call for greater involvement of
both parents and administrators in the classroom, but these efforts seem to only
last a few months and then die out – what can be done to proactively create an
environment that fosters the whole community working together towards the
success of our kids’ education?

Lively Learning: As school days become more and more compact, and
students are expected to remain focused for longer and longer lessons, we run
into disengagement and misbehaviors– how can we add purposeful movement into
each day while still incorporating academics?

Tired of Tickets:Sometimes our efforts towards reinforcing positive behavior create more competition than collaboration, more favoritism than fairness – how can we foster genuine interactions and long-lasting respectful behavior in our student and teachers?